flightaware-mcp

MCP server for FlightAware AeroAPI (v4) — live flight tracking and aviation data for Claude. Track flights, read airport boards, look up operators and aircraft, fetch scheduled flights, and manage flight alerts, all over stdio.

Developed and maintained by AI (Claude Code). Use at your own discretion.

Quick start

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flightaware": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@chrischall/flightaware-mcp"],
      "env": { "AEROAPI_API_KEY": "your-aeroapi-key-here" }
    }
  }
}

Get a key at flightaware.com/aeroapi/portal. The free Personal tier (500 calls/month) is enough to start; AeroAPI bills per query.

Tools

| Area | Tools | | --- | --- | | Flights | fa_get_flights, fa_search_flights, fa_search_flights_advanced, fa_search_flight_positions, fa_count_flights, fa_get_flight_track, fa_get_flight_position, fa_get_flight_route, fa_get_flight_map, fa_get_flight_history, fa_resolve_flight | | Airports | fa_get_airport, fa_get_airport_flights, fa_get_airport_flight_counts, fa_get_airport_routes, fa_list_airports, fa_get_nearby_airports, fa_get_airport_delays, fa_get_airport_weather, fa_resolve_airport | | Operators / aircraft | fa_get_operator, fa_get_operator_flights, fa_list_operators, fa_get_aircraft_owner | | Schedules / predictive | fa_get_scheduled_flights, fa_foresight_search (premium tier) | | Alerts | fa_list_alerts, fa_get_alert, fa_create_alert, fa_update_alert, fa_delete_alert, fa_get_alerts_endpoint, fa_set_alerts_endpoint |

Alert mutations are confirm-gated: without confirm: true they return a dry-run preview and make no network call.

Configuration

| Var | Required | Purpose | | --- | --- | --- | | AEROAPI_API_KEY | yes | Your AeroAPI key (sent as the x-apikey header). | | AEROAPI_OUTPUT_DIR | no | Default directory for flight-map PNGs (default: cwd). | | AEROAPI_CACHE_TTL | no | Seconds to cache identical live-data GET responses (default: 15; 0 disables). Cuts AeroAPI per-query billing. | | AEROAPI_STATIC_CACHE_TTL | no | Longer TTL for reference data — airport/operator info, routes, ownership, canonical lookups (default: 3600; 0 disables). |

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm test

Every request rides your own AeroAPI key and counts against your subscription quota. See docs/FLIGHTAWARE-API.md for the pinned endpoint surface.

License

MIT